Conventional terminal devices (e.g., a personal computer, a printer, a scanner, a facsimile device or a multi function peripheral having a network function) can enhance their functionality by communicating with servers providing various services (e.g., data processing) through a network. In such a terminal device, further information (e.g., information of a service menu) necessary for using the services may be downloaded from the server. An example of such a system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 9-238215.
In such a system, it is further preferable that information explaining respective functions, which have been newly provided or improved, can be provided to the terminal device.
However, some terminal devices may have a relatively small display device on which only a limited number of letters/numerals can be displayed, and the explanation transmitted from the server may not be fully displayed. For example, on a display of the personal computer, forty or more lines of characters can be displayed. However, a printer, a scanner or a multi function peripheral may have a display which can display only a few lines of characters.
One of the methods for solving the above problem, if a WWW scheme is utilized, a type of the terminal device is identified on a server side using a user agent. In such a case, it is possible to transmit an HTML file containing the explanation of the service and corresponding to the displaying capability of the terminal device. Then, the difference of the displaying capability of the terminal devices may be dealt with. However, to transmit the HTML files corresponding to the displaying capability of the terminal devices implies that the number of the HTML files should be the same as the number of the types of the terminal devices. In such a case, when the HTML files are to be revised or HTML files for new types of terminal devices are to be added, burden to the server administrator would be relatively large. Further, for some terminals, the quantity of the information decreases, and the service may not be explained sufficiently.
It may be possible to prepare HTML files for service titles and for service descriptions, which constitute a service menu. Such a configuration may reduce the amount of each file. If the menu has such a structure, the user can obtain the explanation of a desired service by following links to an HTML file containing the explanation.
However, such a configuration requires the terminal device to obtain appropriate HTML files form the server. Therefore, at the terminal device, a display response at transition among pages becomes lowered. This problem is significant when the terminal device is OA (Office Automation) equipment, such as a printer, a scanner, a facsimile machine, an MFP and the like. Conventionally, the OA equipment is configured to display a menu, which are displayed using the menu information stored in the equipment and sufficiently quick response is achieved. Therefore, if the menu is displayed using the data obtained through the network, the response is too slow, which is a critical problem for the OA equipment.
In the foregoing, a problem in displaying information is described. It should be noted that the similar problem exists in outputting sound and voice messages.